Position: 6th – Championship: 2nd – Points: 60

“It was a strange day. In the warm up I was feeling really good, so precise in all the breaking points, but in the afternoon I didn’t have the same feeling. I felt like I was going to crash in nearly every corner, so it was a really strange and difficult day for us. It has been difficult for both sides of the box. We have to think about what happened and try to improve for the next races, because we lost some important points for the championship.”

Position: 10th – Championship: 1st – Points: 62

“It was a very difficult race after a difficult weekend. I never had a good feeling with the bike and the tyres. We tried to work a lot, especially to fix the spin and acceleration, but unfortunately for the race we did worse. We tried to modify it a bit, but I was also in trouble with the front. At the end I had to slow down a lot and had a lot of vibration. It was OK to arrive right at the end, but it was a difficult weekend for the whole team. We expected to be stronger and more competitive at this track, looking at the results of last year. We need to try and understand what happened, tomorrow we have the test and we‘ll see.”

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP – Team Director

“Today‘s results make for a disappointing ending to the first European round of the season. After the warm up results, we couldn‘t have expected that the Spanish GP was going to turn out to be this type of race. Maverick started the race with the same configuration as he had during the warm up, but from the very beginning of the race he struggled with the front. Valentino had exactly the same problem. It seems the hardest front tyre works better on our bike in cooler temperatures, because this was the only difference between the warm up and the race. We will analyse today‘s data and learn from it. Luckily, tomorrow we will spend one more day testing here, so we will try to understand what caused today‘s outcome.”

Postion: 4th – Championship: 6th – Points: 35

“I feel so happy about our performance today. Jerez is a complicated track and all of the riders were really close in qualifying so it has been a challenge here. At the beginning of the race, my feeling was great and I felt very comfortable, plus I had the confidence. I was able to overtake some of the top guys and then when I was second, I still felt good. However, I almost crashed twice, which allowed Marc to overtake me and from that moment I was wondering what would happen. I could not push anymore on the front because I was really on the limit and so I wasn’t able to follow the top two riders. I remained in third for a long time, but when Jorge overtook me, I was thinking that I could manage the gap, yet he was more consistent than me in the last eight laps. The target is to be on the podium or as close as possible to it, so we did the job today. I am happy and now I will take a good rest so that I can be strong again for my home race in two weeks. I am positive about going to Le Mans and this is perhaps why I am thinking that everything is going well now, so maybe the most difficult time is yet to come. The best way to control the pressure that I will feel in France is to enjoy every moment, live in the present and appreciate our work.”

Postion: 8th – Championship: 8th – Points: 28

“I am pleased with the result today and we collected some important points for the championship. I still need to keep improving, but especially on the opening lap. I made too many mistakes today when we got going, but in the race, when the tyres dropped, my pace was similar to Maverick and Johann and I made up a lot of ground. This seems to be the case so far in my rookie season, but I need to work on myself and analyse the Grand Prix to see what I can do differently so that I don’t lose as many positions in the first five or six laps. It was my fourth point scoring finish this year, which I am happy about, and I hope to make a step up at the next round which will be special as it’s the team’s home race in Le Mans.”

“It was an unbelievably exciting GP for the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team. We knew that a good race was possible but the temperature was very high and this circuit gets tricky with the grip when it’s this hot and so the tyres played a big part. At the start, Johann made some really good overtakes to get up to second, and we couldn’t believe how well he was doing, just like in the previous three Grand Prix’s! I thought that he was taking advantage of the softer front than the factory guys and that this would change at the half race distance. Yet, he never slowed down and the tyres were consistent until the finish. I’m sure that he could have made a move on Jorge at the end, but the gap to Dovizioso behind him was increasing all the time, so he wisely decided to bring the bike home and get the points. He was the fastest Yamaha rider and I am honoured that these points will be added to the Yamaha tally in the constructor’s championship. I must admit that Johann doesn’t seem to be behaving like a rookie as he was with Marquez, Pedrosa and Lorenzo and he didn’t seem to be struggling to keep up with them at all! This is happening at the best moment because the next round is his home race in Le Mans and I’m sure that everyone will be coming to support Johann and Tech3 there. On the other side of the garage, Jonas Folger produced an incredible ride as well. He was a bit more cautious in the opening laps but then he showed great determination and ran similar lap times to his teammate. Eventually, he caught the group in front of him where Valentino was, and he passed him cleanly before opening up a gap and then meeting the flag in 8th, which is a great team result. Jonas spent a lot of time on his own but the lap times were certainly impressive and just like Johann, he is learning a lot and we are very happy with our two guys. There is a test tomorrow where hopefully both of them will learn more about how to setup and understand their MotoGP bikes. We are a really pleased team and I must say thank you to Yamaha for their superb support and thanks to our riders who both did very well.”